Walter Bagehot is the great unsung hero of nineteenth century letters.

He is most remembered for The English Constitution, but, as this collection of his best writing shows, his genius as a writer extends beyond this one work and he ranks with Macaulay, Ruskin, Carlyle and Wilde in his range of interests, style, persuasive argument and wit.

At the core of everything Bagehot wrote is an intense fascination with human character so that, more so than almost any other essayist, his writing endures and offers real pleasures now.

In Bagehot's own words, 'writers, like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders'. One of the many delights of this book is that it proves conclusively which he was.

"It combines Dudley Edwards's ability as a gifted historian with her skill as a journalist to produce a hugely important and authoritative book that reads as compulsively as a thriller."John Spain, Irish Independent

"A hurtling journey, often hilarious and sometimes monstrous, through newspapers, class, politics and sex; not just the double biography of two extraordinary men, but a sideways history of Britain in the fifties and sixties"Andrew Marr

"The depth of her learning and the breadth of her sympathy, make this a compelling book, the product of genuine free thinking and spare, fine writing. Few books published this year will have the charm, learning, wisdom and humanity of The Faithful Tribe"The Times

This is the help-manual I longed for when I was a young student of Irish history but eventually had to write myself. It’s still the reference book I use most often.’ Ruth Dudley Edwards